Performed by Val Cole

Get to know the writer:

1. What is your short story about?

King Harold is insufferable. His bad behavior is poisoning his universe. This goes on until one day, the Angel of Death decides that he has to have a word with the king. My daughter summarized it best: “It’s about a deranged tyrant meets Christmas Carol with some interdimensional pizazz.”

2. What genres would you say this story is in?

Fantasy, political satire

3. How would you describe this story in two words?

Troubled multiverse

4. What movie have you seen the most in your life?

Doctor Who

5. What is your favorite song? (Or, what song have you listened to the most times in your life?)

Johann Sebastian Bach: “Ich will nur dir zu Ehren lebel.” (I want to live only to honor thee.)

6. Do you have an all-time favorite novel?

Ferien auf Saltkrokan (Astrid Lindgren) (Vacations on Saltkrokan)

7. What motivated you to write this story?

The news vortex, it’s killing our universe. If thoughts can change reality, we need to think differently.

8. If you could have dinner with one person (dead or alive), who would that be?

Erich Fromm

9. Apart from writing, what else are you passionate about?

Family, art, nature

10. What influenced you to enter your story to get performed?

Just a whim.

11. Any advice or tips you’d like to pass on to other writers?

As my daughter said: “Write as if nobody is ever going to read your stuff.”